Congratulations to all the students for their hard work -- it has paid off! Have a great summer and an even better future.

BASW Senior Rozie Garcia Has been Selected As The CHHS Outstanding Graduate For 2015!

Ms. Garcia will be honored at the Alumni Association banquet in May. This prestigious undergraduate award is given to a student who demonstrates exceptional work in academic performance, campus AND community-based activities. Rozie excels in all areas and has demonstrated her dedication to our university and the School of Social Work.

This is a well-deserved honor for such an outstanding student and our ASSW President! This is a college-wide award and is very competitive, so we are especially proud of Rozie and her efforts.

We were able to sit down with Rozie recently to ask her about what the award means to her, and find out about her academic path here at CSULB and beyond. Audio excerpts from the interview follow, so you can hear Rozie tell you about it in her own words.

CSULB School of Social Work Scholarship Committee Announces 2015 Awardees

On behalf of the Scholarship Committee, we are pleased to announce the first round of School of Social Work Scholarship awardees for 2015!

Maria McNabola Scholarship

Orfanelli Ambriz

Siuna Morales Perez

Jason Singh

School of Social Work Thesis Scholarship

Nhi Dang

David Renteria

Congratulations to all on this impressive academic acheivement!

ARCHIVED ARTICLES FROM 2014

Women's Research Colloquium Features School of Social Work's Own Dr. Rashida Crutchfield

The 2014 Women's Research Colloquium was held recently at The Pointe in the Walter Pyramid, and along with other distinguished guests, Dr. Crutchfield discussed her research on "A Struggle to New Heights: The Experiences of Female Homeless College Students."

Dr. Crutchfield conducted interviews with 14 female students at the community college level, uncovering their struggles as they work towards an education while juggling housing instability. She said female homeless college students are largely invisible on college campuses, and administrators must work harder to meet their needs and remove barriers to their success.

About 75 people attended the event, which was presented by the President's Commission on the Status of Women.

The School of Social Work is proud to welcome our new Director, Dr. Nancy Meyer-Adams...

(shown here with her Distinguished Faculty Advising Award, in April 2014)

... but she should be a very familar face to anyone who has been a part of the CSULB Social Work family for the past several years.

Check out the link to the right to read a message from the new Director!

2014 MSW Thesis Students Share The Results Of Hard Work And Dedication

If you take a few minutes to check out our 2014 MSW Student Thesis Showcase, you'll be rewarded with forty-six opportunities to learn more about a host of compelling topics, and gain insights from the social workers of the future (and present!) who are taking them on.

School Of Social Work Looks Back Fondly on Agathi Glezakos' 40 Years at CSULB

As we began 2014, our dear friend -- and longtime member of the CSULB School of Social Work family -- Dr. Agathi Glezakos retired.

As we wish her the best in this next exciting phase of her life, we want to remember a few highlights of a truly impressive and inspiring career here. In her own words, Agathi shares some of her memories of this time.

My Years on the Campus of CSULB and School of Social Work

by Agathi Glezakos, Ph.D., L.C.S.W, A.C.S.W.

This past December 31st, 2013, the time had come for me to end my teaching career in the School of Social Work at California State University Long Beach (CSULB) – a career that began in the Fall semester of 1973. As I enter retirement, I reflect upon the multiple opportunities, support systems, and life circumstances that contributed to my choosing social work as a profession and teaching social work to undergraduate and graduate social work students over the span of 40 years.

My career as a social worker began with the decision to enter the undergraduate program of Social Welfare at Pierce College, the all female American College in Athens, Greece, in the Fall of 1958. In the course of four undergraduate years, with internships in different social service settings, I came to appreciate and value the social work profession, a profession that most Greeks, including my most immediate family, knew nothing about.

Their belief was that doing the things that I was going to school to study about was what anyone with a “good” heart could do. However, my experience was that the fundamental tenets of social work practice - including, but not limited to, social justice, acceptance and inclusion, equality and just distribution of resources - were not part of my childhood experiences in the post-civil war political and welfare environment of Greece.

And during my short period of practice, I also discovered that when these tenets are applied in human interactions, particularly in the interactions between a helping agent and the individual seeking help, their effect on the one receiving help can be empowering. I knew then that I wanted to become an empowering agent.

Social Work MSW Student Helps Bridge Communities and Law Enforcement With Mental Health Education

We spoke with Erika Klohe, one of our outstanding MSW students in CSULB’s Distance Education program, who was recently featured in a series of articles for Petaluma360.com, and the Santa Rosa Press Democrat. Erika is a Family Service Coordinator at Buckelew, a county-wide organization that serves the mentally ill. Erika talked about some of the challenges and rewards of her job.

Erika Klohe: I’ve worked closely with Petaluma PD for 4 years to advocate for the community, and decrease risk for Police -– as a Family Service coordinator, it’s been my experience that sometimes families going through a mental health crisis have to call police, and don't understand the protocols.

School of Social Work: What are some of the things social workers are doing to help families in crisis and the police who respond to them?

EK: People are experiencing symptoms that are scary for themselves and loved ones, but at the same time, civil rights shouldn't be hindered.

CSULB MSW Student Brooke Clavesilla Stands Up For Social Change At The Long Beach City Council, And Beyond

The School of Social Work spoke recently with Brooke Clavesilla, one of our outstanding MSW students at CSULB.

Pictured left to right, from HLB: America Aceve, Daleth Caspeta and Brooke Clavesilla

Brooke has been very busy in her internship at Housing Long Beach, involved in recruiting and training low-income community leaders, walking the streets to encourage voter engagement, conducting community meetings, analyzing policies and stuffing envelopes, and the list goes on.

On January 7th Brooke presented testimony to the Long Beach City Council as they debated the future of housing in Long Beach as part of the development of a State-required housing plan that will guide Long Beach development for the next 8 years, and beyond.

Press-Telegram Article Highlights Social Work Simulation Training Resources At CSULB

Simulation sets are designed for role-playing training session for social workers, by the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services.

Students and professors at Cal State L.A. and Cal State Long Beach (including Child Welfare Training Centre Director, James Ferreira) helped design and construct the sets: including replicas of a courtroom, a hospital and an apartment, with realistic-looking props, including cockroaches and cocaine.

The simulation is part of a revamped training process that replaces eight weeks of PowerPoint presentations about policies and procedures with a year-long program that gives inexperienced social workers hands-on training that includes role-playing, ride-alongs and mentoring.

2013

CSULB MSW Students Shine In Community Projects I & II

Every year, CSULB MSW social work students break into small groups to assess and engage communities during Community Projects I & II.

(left to right: One group of Students holds a Literacy Night, and another creates a powerful presentation about Sex Trafficking)

Whether designing new intake or volunteer recruitment procedures, improving groups serving siblings of children with autism, training teachers to work better with the GLBTQ populations, training youth to reduce human trafficking or police confrontations, increasing awareness of mental health programs, improving voter turn-out, or encouraging social advocacy to reduce the impact of environmental toxicity, these projects are making a difference in the communities served by the School of Social Work.

All this hard work not only benefits the community directly, but the projects these students undertake can provide a wealth of information and resources far beyond the framework of one semester of experience.

If you would like to learn more, click on the link below to see this impressive work in detail.

CSULB Alum Awarded The 2013 Annual Prevention Award

The School of Social Work is proud to acknowledge that on Dec 12th, at the Alpert Jewish Community Center, CSULB alum Tory Cox (LCSW/PPS) was awarded the 2013 Annual Prevention Award, by the End Abuse Long Beach Child Abuse & Domestic Violence Prevention Council .

Tory is the Assistant Director of Field Education and Clinical Associate Professor at the USC School of Social Work, as well as the Field Coordinator for the Social Work & Business in a Global Society Concentration.

Senior BSW Student Awarded NASW Birdwoman Scholarship

Farrah Ferris, Senior BSW student at CSULB has been selected as one of NASW California Chapter's first Native American Birdwoman Scholars. She has the distinction of being the only recipient in the Greater Los Angeles area. Ms. Ferris was kind enough take time to discuss what the scholarship, Social Work and her connection to the Native American community means to her.

School of Social Work: So from what you told us, the Birdwoman Scholarship came about from a woman who was a Native American social worker. Tell us a little about the Native American tribal experience growing up.

Farrah Ferris: I’m from the village of Medildiñ in the Hoopa Valley, which is the largest reservation in California. Even so, it is only 12 square miles, with a population of around 3,500 people. Fishing is a huge part of the Hoopa way of life, and right now they are fighting for the release of four dams. Salmon has been a sustainable food source for them for centuries.

Social Work Alumni Win LACDMH Awards

Recently the CSULB School of Social Work was proud to learn that two of its alumni from the MSW Program had received prestigious awards from the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health.

We sat down with Jeffrey Baer (MSW @ CSULB, Employee of The Year) and Kendra Lyman (BSW & MSW @ CSULB, Team Award Winner) at their workplace at the Long Beach Child and Adolescent Program, along with Heather Jensen (Program Director, Long Beach State alumna) and Jean Lima (37 years with LACDMH, co-winner of Team Award with Kendra).

School of Social Work: How do you think your MSW helped you/didn’t help you prepare for this job?

Kendra: I think the best part of the MSW was the internship. But there were definitely a couple of professors who helped encourage me or guide me at times when I needed it.

Both Jeff and Kendra’s internships were with Long Beach Child and Adolescent Program (LBCAP).

Jeff: Right, it was like it didn’t seem as real until the internship. That was a question I had while I was in the program, but in reality, there is no way to prepare you. The education is a part of it, but it is also your experience, that you bring to it...

CSULB Social Work Grad Student Earns Scholarship, Travels To U.S. Virgin Islands

C

al State Long Beach graduate student Lupita Cardenas’ research on unorthodox healing methods in the Latino community took her to the U.S. Virgin Islands last week. Click HERE to read more!

Social Work Professor Receives NIH Grant to Explore an HIV Testing Intervention Model

The School of Social Work is very pleased to announce that Dr. Thomas Alex Washington (“Alex”), has been awarded a two-year, $397,375 grant by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to develop and pilot test an intervention model to increase HIV testing among young black men who have sex with men (BMSM).

The project, entitled, “Exploring an HIV Testing Intervention Model” (TIM Project) will explore the effectiveness of a motivational video intervention to increase HIV testing among young BMSM. Seen below is a still image from one of the videos.